Gregory Norminton Ordre des livres (chronologique)

First translation into English of one of the most popular French children's classics of all times. Recently adapted for the screen

"Il y a à parier que toute idée publique, toute convention reçue, est une sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand nombre". Exergue du Dictionnaire des idées reçues - oeuvre inachevée aux multiples manuscrits -, cette maxime de Chamfort en donne le ton incisif. "Actrice", "mélancolie", "pédantisme", "voyageur", "candeur", "duel", "laboureurs", "religion"... Sur des sujets aussi variés, Flaubert y relève en effet pensées figées et lieux communs, traquant la vacuité avec une ironie mordante.

Set in 17th-century England, the haunting tale of a painter who lived through the Civil War, Cromwell's reign and the Restoration This intimate and compelling novel deftly interweaves three periods in the life of 17th-century painter Nathaniel Deller: in 1650, just after Charles l's execution, the young Deller joins a political group too radical even for the Roundheads; ten years later, on the night of Charles ll's return from exile, Deller is accused by his former friend Thomas Digby of betraying their ideals; and in 1680, the increasingly blind painter commissions his former pupil William Stroud to finish the portrait of his late wife, knowing this could reignite the romance between Stroud and the daughter he tyrannises. Offering a vivid picture of England during a period of great turmoil, GHOST PORTRAIT explores the conflict between public duty and private desire, idealism and ambition.

Peopled by werewolves, thieves, emperors and travelling players, this is the story of Tomasso Grilli, a dwarf with an extraordinary capacity for artistic forgery and remarkably flexible morals. He recounts his base beginnings in Florence and his ascent to the dubious pinnacles of criminal success.

The characters on Norminton's purgatorial 'Ship of Fools' - a ship that's going nowhere fast - bicker and struggle for attention; telling tales that bounce off one another to form a compendium of interrelated stories, running from lyrical romance to scabrous satire, by way of fairy-tale and black comedy. Often wickedly funny, always stunningly written and displaying an astonishing range of voices (the prudish nun, the bawdy old woman, the penitent drunkard, and the glutton whose stomach does all the talking - to name a few) 'The Ship of Fools' is truly a treasure chest of a novel, and an example of story-telling at its very best.